26 November 2012

SCENES FROM A RUN: KAISER PARK ETC

For today's morning run, I ran past Home Depot down Cropsey Avenue to Neptune Avenue then ran along the water to get to Kaiser Park. It was the first time I visited the area since Hurricane Sandy's visit. As expected, there were many damaged cars with scribble about Geico. Some time after the hurricane, I heard about sink holes at Mark Twain Middle School. Then just yesterday my son told me that his school's gym was not usable because the floor was damaged, probably from the storm surge. I wondered how the track at Kaiser Park fare. So off I went this morning to find out.

This gas station near West 20th Street must be part of the reason Mayor Bloomberg extended the gas ration. Many gas stations did not have gas to sell, but this one, right on the edge of Coney Creek, was probably flooded and sustained irreparable water damage.

Only part of the fence remains on this piece of land, mere steps from the shuttered gas station. Probably a combination of flood water loosening the fence's foundation and high wind/wave. I don't recall seeing a tree here so that must be a sink hole in the foreground.

This clinic of the Coney Island Hospital is no longer open to service its patients. A sign on the closed door reads "All medical patients are being referred to Kings County Hospital located at 451 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn... and Woodhull Medical Center located at 760 Broadway, Brooklyn..."

A peek inside the Green Thumb Garden adjacent to Mark Twain Middle School. However, I noticed that there was no longer a Green Thumb sign on the gate. Maybe the wind blew the sign away, or maybe it is not a Green Thumb site any more.

Some clean-up already happened and fallen tree limbs removed, but this one at the edge of Mark Twain still rested on the fence.

Another section of the Mark Twain fence breached by a fallen tree. I guess it's a good thing that the tree did not fall the other way to hit the school.

I am happy to report that the track at Kaiser Park appears undamaged. There was a temporary fence to block off an entrance to the track but it was not standing at the time. Perhaps the wind knocked it down, or people simply broke into the track to use it.

Not a sink hole, just some square hole that lost its cover? Note the debris in the background, which may be dangerous if there are a few hundred people on the track, but to a lone runner, easy obstacle to bypass.

Another down tree, in the area that I, perhaps incorrectly, think of a the western tip of Kaiser Park. In the warm months, this area is overrun with weeds and such. The tree probably provided cover from the sky, so the area is somewhat desolate. Now sand covers most of the ground. Teams of volunteers cleared the sand off the Riegelman Boardwalk but I wonder if the Parks Department will ever clear all that sand. Perhaps this is how this piece of land will be like for the next few hundred years...

It took me a few minutes to realize that the downed fence in the foreground, along with the standing piece in the background, used to form the entrance to area in the photo before. Some weed still stand, but in the warm months there was much more, so that the path was mostly obscured.

To the left of the photo, in the warm months, usually on Wednesday you can find nervous new drivers sitting in cars, in a queue, waiting for their road tests.

Back at Home Depot, there is a ton of garbage outside the gate to the trail that goes half-way around the store. Not much difference, since the trail is always padlocked at this end anyway.